The Best of The Animals was The Animals' first greatest hits collection. It was released in February 1966 in the United States, but never put out in the United Kingdom (where a similar album, The Most of Animals, was also released in 1966). The album showcased The Animals' tough-edged pop hits combined with their more devoted blues and R&B workouts.

Contents

This was the first Animals album to feature new keyboardist Dave Rowberry in its photographs. Liner notes by Record Beat's June Harris extolled the musical and culture virtues of the group and emphasized how close she was to the group. However, overall copyediting was poor and four of the members' names were misspelled.

The album was a great commercial success in the U.S., peaking at number 6 on the Billboard 200, the highest such mark of their career, and remaining on the chart for over two years.[2] By July 1966 it had been certified as a gold record, their only album ever to attain that status.[3]

In his 1979 volume Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island, famed rock critic Greil Marcus selected The Best of The Animals for inclusion on same, writing: "This was trash R&B from Newcastle, England, and especially when the focus shifted from American blues to savage pleas for release from working-class slums, more powerful than it had any right to be."[4] In 1997, Rolling Stone magazine placed The Best of The Animals into the 1960s section of its Rolling Stone 200: The Essential Rock Collection list.[5]

Other compilation albums by the same name (and sometimes even the same cover) but different contents would appear in later decades.